Green Deal Update

Green Deal ConsultationThe Green Deal consultion response deadline has now passed, so we await the published responses. If you are interested in seeing the consultation documents take a look here, the same website also hosts a whole raft of documents such as the statutory instruments, the draft impact assessment, consumer research and non domestic analysis.

Green Deal Webchat

DECC hosted a webchat for interested parties to ask questions about Green Deal and get them answered. See the Question and Answer session here.

Green Deal Training and Assessment

It is almost certain that everyone involved in the Green Deal supply chain will need training of some form or another. The level and nature of that training will depend on the individuals role within Green Deal and the knowledge and experience around sustainable refurbishment and renewable technologies that they already have.

For Green Deal Advisers (GDAs) there will be a mandatory new qualification. All GDAs will have to obtain the qualification before being able to provide Green Deal Advice reports. Although the qualification is still to be finalised there are some things which are already known. First of all it will be a National Vocational Qualification on the Qualification Curriculum Framework (QCF), a cousin of NVQs. It may be offered by a number of different awarding bodies (such as City and Guilds, ABBE or EAL) and will almost certainly be delivered via a range of training and assessment providers, such as FE colleges and private companies, for example NES Ltd. It is almost certain that the qualification will require the learner to provide a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate the required competence, and will include an examination set by the awarding body to test knowledge.

The exact syllabus for the training, the nature of the portfolio of evidence and the size of any examination of knowledge are still to be determined, but the development work (which is being lead by the Sector Skills Council for the built environment – Asset Skills) is on target and it is anticipated that we might have a qualification by April.

For potential installers (plumbers, electricians, builders etc.) who might be interested in expanding their business to include Green Deal products the approach is slightly different. All installers will have to be certified for the measures that they install. For each green deal measure there will be a defined competency set out in a document called PAS 2030. (PAS stands for Publicly Available Standard). In effect the PAS 2030 will become the installation standard for Green Deal and, it is hoped, other ‘green refurbishment’ contracts. Because the proposed Green Deal measures are so varied a ‘one qualification fits all’ approach simply will not work. Instead, for each measure the competency will be defined in the PAS document and an installer will have to demonstrate that they match that competency. In practice what this means is that existing qualifications in the building and building services sector will need to be mapped against the PAS 2030 document and where gaps exist new QCF Units created.

As the PAS 2030 document has not yet been signed off, as far as we are aware this work is only just beginning. However over the next couple of weeks we expect to see awarding bodies and assessment centres begin to publish how their existing qualifications map across.

As the qualifications develop, the details become clearer and, crucially for businesses and learners, the amount of time, effort and cost to achieve the qualifications is known we will let you know. In the meantime watch the News section on our website for information as it is released.

£200m Additional Funding for Early Adopters

In the Autumn Statement the governement announced that there would be an additional £200m funding available to early adopters on a time limited basis. This has been put in place to encourage consumers to engage with Green Deal as soon as the initiative commences. Full details are here.

Green Deal Basics

Need to understand the fundamental basics of Green Deal, then take a look here.

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